Attempting to change the subject, Stanley coughed and awkwardly opening his eyes.

Elisabeth’s tail hadn’t changed position and remained in a position that lifting up her miniskirt.

He quickly averted his gaze and softly sighing in relief that she hadn’t actually removed her underwear.

Standing up from the table, Stanley moved toward the door, “Well… since your feeling better, I think it’s time I left.”

Moving to preventing him from leaving, Elisabeth chased after him and hugged him from behind, “Hold on, you can’t leave until I’ve thanked you properly.”

“Let go. Thanking me really isn’t necessary.” Stanley protested, trying to break out of her grasp.

Elisabeth released him, moved in front of the door and pressing her hands outward toward him to prevent him from leaving while arguing, “Maybe it isn’t necessary for you. However, it entirely necessary for me to pay back my debts.”

Rolling his eyes at her ridiculous pose, Stanley quickly put out a request to placate her, “Fine. Bring me some history books.”

“I can definitely do that-“ Elisabeth said leaning toward him while placing her hands on her hips, “-but, you don’t have any other… desires?”

“I do believe the books will be enough.” Stanley blandly stated, trying to ignore the implication of her words.

“So that’s all you think my life is worth? Some worthless books?” Elisabeth pouted at Stanley’s request, “That’s nowhere near enough to pay back the debt I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me anything.” Stanley objected, before elaborating through another statement that was technically only partially truthful. “I saved you because I wanted to. I disliked the fact he lied and cheated during the duel.”

Understanding that her current approach wasn’t working, Elisabeth quickly switched up and instead inquired, “What do you want to learn about history anyway? It would be far quicker to just ask me.”

Stanley didn’t actually know anything about the history of this universe. While he managed to piece bits of it together from hints, even history topics that are common sense to Elisabeth he knew nothing about.

Unsure where to begin, Stanley briefly clarified, “It’s better to just bring the books. I know almost nothing about history.”

“Nothing?” She laughed, “That’s impossible. Even if you didn’t pay any attention, you should’ve learned something from your teachers.”

Deciding it was easiest to simply tell the truth, Stanley replied, “I’m from an another universe. You might as well assume my knowledge of history is no different from a baby.”

“Another universe?” Elisabeth turned curious, “Why did you choose to come to this dying universe then? How did you get here?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t exactly choose to come here.” Stanley shrugged while answering her questions, “In fact, I’m not entirely confident this is a different universe. Mana didn’t exactly exist in our universe so I’m not entirely sure…”

Elisabeth snorted at his statement and replied, “Mana certainly existed in your old universe. It’s the building blocks of all matter. What else would matter be made of?”

“Atoms?” Stanley parroted his scientific education.

Stanley was slightly curious as to whether Elisabeth thought something different made up the building blocks of the universe. Stanley vastly underestimated her level of education though.

“...and atoms are made up of subatomic particles known as electrons and quarks.” Elisabeth swiftly stated, pointing at him with her tail. Then Elisabeth proceeded to ask, “What do you think quarks and electrons are made of?”

Stanley hadn’t remembered the exact name of the quantum particles making up the nucleus of an atom until Elisabeth said it, but Stanley quickly realized where she going with her question, “You’re saying quarks and electrons are made of mana?”

“Only quarks, but yes… Quarks are mana hyper-condensed to the point that they’re completely unusable for magic. Electrons could be called an electrical byproduct of the creation of quarks.” Elisabeth nodded, her seductive actions had completely stopped as she had became distracted explaining molecular physics.

“That’s… interesting.” Stanley replied, he wasn’t exactly sure whether he believed her but decided to temporarily accept it.

Elisabeth stepping uncomfortably close and leaned toward him. Intruding on his personal space, she inquired, “How exactly did you arrive here if your universe didn’t know how to use mana?”

Stanley slightly backed up and shrugged in response, “Doors can be opened on both sides. Maybe someone on this end did something? Why they bothered to kidnap us, though? That I’ll probably never know.”

Elisabeth’s expression turned solemn and far more serious than before, “Us? Who else came with you?”

Having some space to breath, he stepped back and put some distance between the thinly dressed Elisabeth and himself.

Rubbing the back of his head, Stanley pondered the question.

He hadn’t actual thought about it much. Stanley had just assumed most people had a similar experience to his and hadn’t bothered confirming it with them.

Even so, upon thinking back to his interactions with people, it was clear most people had as little knowledge about the actual situation of this universe which indicated they were from elsewhere.

Although Stanley wasn’t as confident as before, he still responded truthfully to the best of his knowledge. “From what I can tell, lots of people. Most seem to have arrived here suddenly after being kidnapped from their own respective universes.”

Elisabeth fell quiet before softly inquiring, “Like that person I dueled earlier?”

“Probably… presumably most of the people in this zone are from another universe.” Stanley didn’t know the actual situation, but it seemed likely. From what he understood, the number of people that were actual natives of this universe was very small.

Elisabeth backed up and quietly sat down on Stanley’s bed. Her expression had darkened a considerable degree.

After remaining quiet for nearly twenty seconds, she finally spoke with a gloomy voice, “I see… I’m afraid you’re going to have to excuse me. I have something urgent to take care of.”

“Are you okay?” Stanley carefully asked, while watching her depressed expression.

“I’m… I’m fine.” Elisabeth answered with an affirmative response, but her voice was clearly trembling and she had to wipe her eyes.

Anyone with a brain and a functioning set of eyes wouldn’t believe her. Elisabeth didn’t look fine, instead she seemed to be on the verge of collapse. As though the entire world had collapsed around her.

She stood up and walking toward the door. When she reached the door, she turned around and bowed, “Thank you for saving my life. I’ll have a maid bring over the books you wanted.”

Watching her leave, Stanley hesitated.

He didn’t exactly want to intrude on her business, but she seemed shaken and potentially in need of help.

[Stanley choose to follow after Elisabeth. Stanley could tell something interesting was about to happen and refused to wait around for her return like a lost puppy.]

Hearing the Narrator’s instructions, Stanley felt relieved to have an excuse to confirm the actual situation and follow after her.

Rushing out the door, he spotted her walking away. Stanley called, “Hang on. I’m coming with you.”

Elisabeth slowed down at his call and shook her head, “There’s no need. This is something I need to do alone.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I refuse to wait around like a lost puppy.” Stanley plagiarized from the Narrator before bumped his arm into Elisabeth in a teasing fashion to lighten the mood, “Hey, maybe if you explained the situation and satisfied my curiosity, I wouldn’t feel the need to follow after you and instead could ruthlessly abandon you.”

Elisabeth chuckled at his exaggeration and her expression lightened up. She smirked, turned toward him and began walking backward, “Oh, how kind of you. Using me to satisfy yourself then throwing me away.”

“Isn’t that what we both wanted anyway?” Stanley teased in an attempt to prevent her from thinking about whatever was bothering her.

“Oh~ Is that what you truly want? I planned on having a mutually satisfying relationship.” She retorted, looking down and pulling on the thin clothing covering her chest.

“Yep, that definitely what I wanted. This gentlemanly demeanor is entirely a disguise. I’ve always secretly planned to take advantage of you to satisfy myself.” Stanley deadpanned in jest to distract her from whatever was saddening her. With that said to lighten the mood, Stanley attempted to bring the conversation back on track and asked. “So… mind satisfying me and explaining where we are heading?”

“My bedroom… I’d like to keep this private so how about I explain the rest inside?” Elisabeth chuckled, before turned around and opened the door to her room.

Following her inside, Stanley found took a seat at a table on the right-hand side of the room and asked. “So, what exactly is the problem?”

Elisabeth moved toward a line of drawers on the left side of the room, while answering his question she began opening them, “Don’t you think it odd that the majority of people in this zone came from another universe and I hadn’t been informed of it.”

Stanley thought about it and responded, “Well, it’s not exactly something that comes up in everyday conversation.”

“True, but I should’ve been informed of it. After all, it’s not even a secret if that many people are aware of it.” Elisabeth explained, grabbing piece of clothing out the drawer.

“Someone has been intentionally kept it from you?” Stanley pondered distracted by his thought process.

Elisabeth responded as she grabbed another piece of clothing out of the drawer, “Exactly, I already knew that someone had betrayed me when I was kidnapped. The fact a poison I developed ended up in the hands of those people only proved it.”

Stanley managed to postulate a theory, “…and when you learned that someone had been able to keeping such important information hidden, you managed to narrow down who the traitor is?”

“Mmmhmm… My uncle is the person in charge of such matters. He’s the only person who could have covered it up.” Elisabeth stated, as she began removing her clothes.

Stanley hadn’t noticed that Elisabeth had begun undressing. He had avoiding looking in her direction due her skimpy maid outfit and had instead focused on the information he received.

Having a basic understanding the situation, Stanley moved on to the question. “So, what do you planning on doing about it?”

“I plan to confront him about it. It’s unlike this is mere negligence but it’s unclear whether he’s actually the mastermind or simply helping someone else.” Elisabeth replied as she made a show of removing her final piece of clothing.

As she turned around and faced her unclothed body toward Stanley, she frowned. Stanley hadn’t even been looking in her direction even as she put on a show for him.

Soon Elisabeth’s frown turned into a predatory grin, she realized this was a good chance.

Swiftly pulling out two sets of underwear out of the drawer, Elisabeth called toward him. “What do you prefer? Black or blue?”

Confused, Stanley glanced toward her. As he swept his eyes over toward her, he got a full view of her body and spotted the pair of underwear in her hands.

By the time Stanley realized what Elisabeth was referring to and closed his eyes, the image of her body had already been burned into his hormonal brain.

Covering his eyes with his palm, he blushed slightly embarrassed and simultaneously felt his eyes twitching in irritation. “Why exactly are you naked?”

“I couldn’t go see my uncle in a maid outfit. Obviously, I had to get changed.” She explained as though it was common sense.

“You should've told me. I would’ve waited outside.” Stanley said, the image of her body still fresh in his brain.

Elisabeth pretended to be innocent and retorted, “Didn’t you want me to satisfy your curiosity though?”

“I meant… you know what, I don’t care.” Stanley realized that there was no way he was going to win this argument and gave up.

If he attempted to argue the topic, she would certainly continue teasing him and try to get away with something worse. He needed to end to the conversation as soon as possible. Hopefully before Elisabeth could come up with another reason for him to gawk at her.

Trying to force her to begin getting dressed, Stanley answered her earlier question about which to wear. “Black. It would coordinate well with your white ears and tail.”

“Why don’t you take a closer look before deciding?” Elisabeth seductively replied, and Stanley heard her footstep get closer.

“No need.” Stanley hastily reminded, “Don’t you have to go confront your uncle?”

“Even so, I can’t possibly go improperly dressed. I need your help.” Elisabeth replied clearly attempting to sound serious, but failed as he could hear the massive grin on her face.

“Your uncle definitely shouldn’t be seeing your underwear.” Stanley stated, turning away from her in his seat as he heard her step closer and closer.

“True, but what if I wanted to have fun with a guy afterward.” Elisabeth admitted, as her tail slowly wrapped around Stanley’s arm and began gently pulling it away from his eyes, “I would be super embarrassed if my underwear didn’t impress him~”

“I don’t think it possible for you to be embarrassed.” Stanley validly retorted. As he began feel his arm being dragged toward her naked body, Stanley panicked, “Besides, how could I possibly compare how it looks without you physically wearing it?”

Elisabeth stopped pulling his arm away with her tail and asked, “You’ll compare the two of them for me? You wouldn’t be trying to cheat me by momentarily glancing at them before closing your eyes?”

Afraid of what would happen if he refused, Stanley nodded.

“Thank you~” Elisabeth replied hugging him from behind and pressing her upper body against him.

Feeling her breasts pressed against his upper back and her soft tail wrapped around his arm, Stanley immediately regretted agreeing to compare her underwear. He thought agreeing would placate her, instead it seemed to have excited her further.

Who knew how long Elisabeth would force him to stare at her in underwear before letting him go? He was already tempted to give in. If it wasn’t for his intense stubbornness, he would’ve already fallen into temptation.

How could he stand gawking at her with nothing but her underwear on for an extended period of time? If she made an advance at that time, could he possibly resist?

When he began contemplating where everything went wrong, he realized that he should never have entered her bedroom. That was his biggest mistake.

How could Elisabeth possibly give up on such a prime opportunity when she already admitted that her priority was to seduce him?

Wasn’t he asking for trouble when he entered the bedroom of a girl who actively attempting to seduce him?

Narrator, what were you thinking? How could following her into her bedroom possibly be a good idea?